The Best News You’ll Ever Hear

as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good,not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” — Romans 3:10-18

That’s the way we are without God. That’s the way we are when we go to church but don’t believe. That’s the “cultural Christian”, the one who goes to church for appearance’s sake.

It’s the atheist, the agnostic, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Mormon, the Jehovah’s Witness, the Muslim, and the Wiccan. It’s the “natural” man. It’s anyone who seeks “goodness” on his own terms.

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. — Romans 3:19-20

No one is righteous, and nothing we can do will justify us before God. There’s no escaping it. We can’t argue with God about it. If we try to appeal to God’s law we’re convicted. We are, all of us, deserving of death and Hell.

That’s the bad news.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. — Romans 3:21-26

Jesus’ propitiation of God’s just wrath is available to us all. But there’s only one way to receive his grace, it is “to be received by faith.” This isn’t because of us, nor anything we have done. Instead it’s to demonstrate God’s righteousness.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. — Ephesians 2:1-10

That’s the good news. Salvation from the power and penalty of sin is offered to all. Sadly many will simply not believe and will lose the opportunity.

God grants each of us a measure of faith. What will you do with it? Will you receive God’s mercy through that faith? Or not?

If you have already I’m happy to have you in his family. You and I were deserving of the worst that God could throw at us. We’ve nothing to be proud of that he saved us, he did it for his own glory, not for anything we’ve done.

If you haven’t believed things couldn’t be more urgent. We are only given today. Repent and believe now, before he demands an accounting of you.